Chronological Plan

¹The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a wildflower.

²It will blossom abundantly and will also rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking knees!

⁴Say to the cowardly: “Be strong; do not fear! Here is your God; vengeance is coming. God’s retribution is coming; he will save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;

⁷the parched ground will become a pool, and the thirsty land springs. In the haunt of jackals, in their lairs, there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus.

⁸A road will be there and a way; it will be called the Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one who walks the path. Fools will not wander on it.

⁹There will be no lion there, and no vicious beast will go up on it; they will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk on it,

¹⁰and the redeemed of the LORD will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

¹In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

²Then the king of Assyria sent his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.

³Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to him.

⁴The royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?

⁵You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me?

⁶Look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.

⁷Suppose you say to me, ‘We rely on the LORD our God.’ Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?

⁸“Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you’re able to supply riders for them!

⁹How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants? How can you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁰Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the LORD’s approval? The LORD said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.’”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the royal spokesman, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew within earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But the royal spokesman replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁴This is what the king says: “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot rescue you.

¹⁵Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD will certainly rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’”

¹⁶Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern

¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land — a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The LORD will rescue us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my power?

²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my power? So will the LORD rescue Jerusalem from my power?”

²¹But they kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the royal spokesman.